Dreams are what you wake up from.

14 years of Livejournalling, and hopefully, more to come.

:: How the Mighty Fall ::

February 20th, 2011

:: How the Mighty Fall ::

I am halfway through reading this brilliant book by Jim Collins, the bestselling author of Good to Great. Jim is an exceptional author, who illustrates his concepts And ideas with great storytelling. Using companies that were mentionedIn his earlier books Good to Great and Built to Last, he explained how Some companies, even after decades of good growth and momentumCan move through Stage 1 and Stage 2 in the undisciplined pursuitOf more. In fact, the demise of Borders resonated with me, as yet another Giant fades into oblivion, and new industries spring forth to compete. I have an interesting conjecture - is technology the biggest culprit?Our generation is marked by the biggest technological leap, and In just a decade, we have seen many brick and mortar industries Falling to technology. I think Kodax, Fuji, and the traditional filmAnd print industries, as well as HMV, Virgin and the music stores.Now it is Borders. Next, Kinokuniya, MPH? Who else is in the queue?

Jim used an interesting metaphor - his (then) ailing wife."On a cloudless August day in 2002, my wife, Joanne, and I Set out to run the long uphill haul to Electric Pass, outside Aspen,Colorado, which starts at an altitude of about 9,800 feet. At about 11,000 feet, I capitulated to the thin air and slowed to a walk, while JoanneContinued her uphill assault. As I emerged from the tree line, where thin air Limits vegetation to scruffy shrubs, I spotted her far ahead in a bright-red

Sweatshirt, running from switchback toward the summit ridge.Two months later, she received a diagnosis that would lead to two Mastectomies. I realised, in retrospect, that at the very momentShe looked like the picture of health pounding her way up the Electric Pass, she must already been carry the carcinoma. That imageOf Joanne, looking healthy yet already sick, stuck in my min And gave me a metaphor -

I've come to see institutional decline like a staged disease; Harder to detect but easier to cure in the early stages, Easier to detect but harder to cure in the later stages. An institution can look strong on the outside but alreadyBe sick on the inside, dangerously on the cusp of a Precipitous fall. "